HOW TO GENERATE DROPLETS WITH GLASS MICROFLUIDIC DROPLET GENERATION PACK

Abstract

This application note is realized with glass microfluidic droplet generation pack. The application note describes how to generate controlled size microfluidic droplets in a glass microfluidic chip by regulating the pressure rate and/or by regulating the flow rate. It has been realized at the microfluidic scale. Both T-junction and flow focusing geometries are used to generate droplets.

DROPLET GENERATION PACK

UP TO 10 000 DROPLETS/SEC

This fully integrated solution includes all the necessary elements to easily create droplets

DROPLET GENERATION PACK

The droplet generation pack has been designed to fit most common droplet generation needs of researchers. Whatever you need, feel free to contact us to discuss about your exact need and if necessary we will adapt the pack and chips to your particular research application. Moreover for most common additional needs we already propose on the shelf option.

Ask me your question

Piezo technology

In this application note we have been working with the OB1 MkIII pressure controller. The piezoelectric technology used to perform pressure regulation allows great flow accuracy and ms response time.

Droplets generation

Droplets generation has a large scale of applications, such as emulsion production, single cell analysis, drug delivery, polymer beads or nanoparticles synthesis. Droplets can also be used as micro bioreactors for chemical or biochemical reactions.

When one wants to generate droplets, the following features are of interest.

real time droplets size modification.

real time modification of the generation frequency.

high reproducibility.

high monodispersity droplets.

COMPONENTS LIST

Protocol

Using the Elveflow® smart interface to generate controlled size droplets:

Setup diagrams

The following diagrams illustrate the complete chain of elements involved in this application note. You will need to assemble all these parts to set up your experiment and generate controlled size droplets.

Why?

Why using glass chip to generate droplets? Glass enables to overcome some PDMS’ drawbacks such as its porosity and solvents adsorption.

Pressure monitoring

A) Monitoring the pressure to generate controlled size droplets:

The Elveflow® smart interface allows to control pressure for oil and water samples.

One can also program sequences in order to generate droplet streams, oil plugs of controlled sized etc.

Flow rate monitoring

B) Monitoring the flow rate to generate controlled size droplets:

When coupled with Flow Sensors our controller enables to control the flow rate thanks to a PID feedback loop. One can request the flow values in the Elveflow® smart interface and the pressure controller will adjust the pressure consequently to reach the requested values.

Congratulations! You’ve achieved the generation of controlled-size droplets with glass microfluidic droplet pack using an Elveflow® Flow sensor and the Elveflow® pressure control instrument!

WORLD LEADER IN HIGH PERFORMANCE MICROFLUIDIC FLOW CONTROL

We provide the only microfluidic flow control system using Piezo technology that enables a blazing fast flow change in your microdevice.